Judging A Book By Its Cover

Something happened to me the other night that humbled me a lot. I had the wonderful opportunity to volunteer at this activity where I did arts and crafts with children who were chronically ill. I love playing with cute, little kids! They can teach us so much and bring us so much happiness. Anyway, there was a kid with the dad following closely behind who approached the table I was working at. This child must have been three or four and had amazingly blue eyes and short blond hair. "Hey, bud! What's your name," I asked in an attempt to establish a connection and put the child at ease. After no response, the dad said, "Her name is Heather (name changed)! Hopefully she'll have hair in a few years." He said it with a reassuring smile in an attempt to minimize my embarrassment, but it barely helped. I felt like my heart had been ripped out of my chest. I had just been administered a humbling dose of embarrassment and sadness.

I continued to play with Heather for a little bit after and was touched by how happy this beautiful little girl was. We finished her drawing and I sent her on her way. What didn't leave, however, was my disappointment in how presumptuous I had been. Granted, it was an honest, unfortunate mistake that I'm sure was quickly forgiven by Heather and her dad. But it got me thinking...

I've already touched on this a little bit in my Battles post, but I feel like everyone is so quickly to judge people by the way they look, act, talk, etc. Why? This world could be filled with the happiness exhibited by Heather if we looked past the minuscule physical details and instead looked on the heart of people. Everyone has something good to offer us, and everyone is seeking for acceptance from those around them. So why not be less presumptuous? Let's all try to be more accepting of those around us and welcome all into our circle of friends. We have nothing to lose, but everything to gain from it.